This is quite amazing and needs probably more than one sheet of A4 just to list the features but one important point is the location which is excellent as you can walk into the town of Sax in 20-25 minutes but it must be noted it is built next to the old road between Sax and Elda which is fairly quiet as most traffic uses the Autovia but there is traffic noise. The property is walled from the road, and extra noise protection can be added with a row of conifer trees, which is an inexpensive and lovely solution. Our country property is in a similar position, and we found that after a couple of weeks, we no longer noticed it. For anyone with health concerns, the property is equidistant from Elda University Hospital and the new Sax Medical Centre and Walk-In.

I know the property well as it was on my books four years ago as pretty much a shell that needed a hug amount of work to bring it back to its former glory and the owner has spent the last four years doing just that and his work, in my opinion, is of a very high quality. There are a few areas that need some attention to complete the reform but due to injury, the owner has not been able to finish them, and this is reflected in the price.

Remote-controlled security gates give you vehicular access to the rear of the property where there is ample parking space for a good number of cars. Of course, you can add a carport if required. Access is via a tarmac road until the last 100 metres and the property is situated on a no-thru road with only three neighbours, two of whom are Spanish and one is Dutch but the property has complete privacy and is not overlooked.

The owner has three dogs and he has areas sectioned to keep them separately if necessary. The entrance to the Studio apartment is here and the main entrance to the House is on the other side, and a pathway around the house takes you there from which you can see most part of the 8,000m2 of land.

A covered terrace allows access to the House and a separate door leads into the 2 Bed Apartment.

Opening the door to the house takes you to a massive covered terrace with lots of windows that can be opened in the warmer weather to allow the mountain breeze to flow through and in the two or three colder months there is a pellet fire and I imagine that this would be the space that is used the most as it really is amazing. The two bedrooms have windows that open up to the covered terrace as well.

In winter, the sun comes up at around 9:00 am to 9:30, and the covered terrace, which really is more of a conservatory, warms up so beautifully. In summer, it is such a wonderful area to sit and relax, and it is more like a massive external lounge/diner in those months.

From here you enter a room that would be perfect as an office, and from here you can enter the beautifully reformed bathroom and access the stairs to the upper level and also enter the hallway where to the right is the kitchen/diner, again beautifully done, mixing traditional and modern styles. The two generous double bedrooms are on the left of the hallway.

By taking the stairs to the upper level, you reach a small landing area which has a door the the very private third bedroom and another door that takes you out to the incredible terrace that wraps itself around two-thirds of the property. It is breathtaking, as are the views from here across the land to the mountains and you can look down to the newly tiled swimming pool, approximately 8 x 4, with a new pump and filter hidden away in the pool room.

So, let us go back to the smaller covered terrace and enter the 2 Bed apartment. Once again, this has been thoughtfully styled and is immediately comfy and welcoming. There are two good-sized bedrooms and a generous kitchen that is superbly fitted out. The bathroom is brand new, naturally and has high-quality fittings. If I were a Guest and given this apartment to stay in, I wouldn´t want to leave to be honest. This is a stunningly solid property with thick walls, meaning there is very little, or even no chance of disturbance from the House and the Apartment.

So, onto the Studio Apartment, which is, once again, just beautiful and so thoughtfully designed. It is perfect for guests to have their own self-contained private space, or for a very fortunate teenager, perhaps to give them privacy and for the parents to get some peace!!

The land is in two parts and is fertile but needs ploughing and the separate area behind the wall to the rear is very green but also very overgrown but it´s your land and you can grow anything on it or perhaps you want to keep horses.

Why Sax?

There are no traffic lights, it has a 13th-century castle and there are no parking meters or fee paying car parks. What? That isn´t enough?

Sax is so popular because it is far enough inland to be “inland” yet it is only 30 minutes to Alicante Airport and 35 minutes to the beach.  Access is by the A31 Dual Carriageway Alicante to Madrid Autovia (Motorway to you) which runs just outside of the town, by rail and coach from Alicante so you can go to the beach and not have to take your car, and now we are only five minutes away from the AVE station at Villena.

The AVE is the high-speed train from Alicante to Madrid, which has only four stops, and we are five minutes away from a station that will have you in Madrid in 2hrs 9mins for as little as 9€ if you are lucky enough, but around 25€ if not.

Let us stick with the town of Sax for now rather than escaping to the beach or the capital city. Sax is dominated by its 13th-century castle known as the Headlight And Guardian Of The Border a landscape of history and rock. When driving back home to Sax after daylight, the sight of the castle, fully lit, and seemingly floating in the air, is one of the most welcoming sights I have ever experienced. It´s a sign we are almost home.

Commercially, Sax was only affected in a minor way by the economic crash as it is the home of three major international businesses selling “persianas y toldos”, window blinds and sun canopies and a shoe industry that means if you recently bought a pair of shoes in Debenhams, for example, the chances are they could have been made in Sax or nearby Elda. 

Both Sax and the smaller town of Salinas just eight minutes drive away have close to full employment and lots of opportunity, which means our crime statistics are very low and both towns are safe in a way that is hard to imagine if you have arrived from the UK or Holland. Walking around whatever time of day or night is a pleasure rather than something to fear.

Recently we have seen the opening of a Consum supermarket, the equivalent of a Waitrose or Marks & Spencer Food Hall whilst there has been a Hiperber and Dia, both excellent supermarkets for as long as I can remember, and if that isn´t enough there is a Carrefour (Think Tesco) eight minutes’ drive away within a shopping mall complex that has two cinemas one of which shows films in English with Spanish subtitles.

Sax is served wonderfully well with schools, our son was eight when we moved here and reluctantly, we put him into a state school, he always went to a private school in Manchester, and within six months he was fluent in two languages and following five years in a secondary school went on to study Pharmacy at Complutense in Madrid one of Spain´s most famous and prestigious universities.

For health, Sax and Spain, in general, is far superior to the UK. In the town, we have a brand new Health Centre with eight doctors, two nurses, a diabetes clinics and a 24/7 Emergency Walk/In Centre.

Ten minutes away in Elda is the remarkable award-winning University Hospital El Virgen De Salud where the surgeons are second to none and the food is atrocious, well it can’t all be good!! Newly opened is the Fibromyalgia centre offering support and therapies for those suffering from acute pain.

There are now three Language Schools in the town and the town hall ran a scheme for language swapping that may be run again. Learning Spanish is a lot less difficult than it may seem and there are new ways of learning that concentrate on conversational Spanish.

There are restaurants and bars aplenty with prices that are at first beyond belief and a three or four-course lunch of good quality can easily be found for 13€ or less. For a special occasion, there is Casa Mami and El Fuente restaurant at the hotel of the same name which are a little more expensive but great food experiences can be had.

Nearby Villena, ten minutes or so up the A31, has some excellent restaurants including the very fashionable Tita´s Gastronimo and the stunning, in my opinion, Condumio. Coffee and toast for breakfast will cost no more than 2€ and the coffee is possibly the best in Europe.

Our biggest challenge these days is finding properties as opposed to selling them as Sax and Salinas as both have become incredibly popular and there are no building permits left in either of the towns and yet they are growing. So, come look around and enjoy.